Things continued on as if Ash was in a dream. Ruby did manage to find land she wanted and the three of them went up to Alaska to inspect it and (unfortunately) hire some humans to begin working on the castle. She said it would be fine because the barrier would go up once it was done and they would never be able to find it again. He couldn't argue with her logic.
Over the next year or so as work on the castle continued, they visited twice more to check on the progress. They remained at home the rest of the time to give Flora some consistency.
Ash got into the habit of showing up in the bedroom around 5:30 so he could cuddle Ruby for a little while before she got up for the day and he had to go to sleep. It quickly became one of his favorite parts of the day because she was so adorable when she was half asleep.
Of course, she was adorable all the time. It was fascinating to see what changed about her every day too.
